Structure Formation in Tailor-Made Buriti Oil Emulsion During Simulated Digestion

Functional food emulsions enriched in health-promoting nutrients can help to maintain and improve health and lifestyle. The oil extracted from the Amazonian buriti fruit is renowned for its high levels of carotenoid, vitamin E, and unsaturated fatty acids, which have been linked to improvements in cardiometabolic health. Here, buriti oil in water emulsions are developed and their colloidal transformations are investigated in an advanced digestion model with oral, gastric, and intestinal parts with in situ synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering, cryogenic electron microscopy, and dynamic light scattering under simulated healthy and compromised digestive conditions. The interior oil phase of whey-stabilized buriti oil-in-water emulsion transforms into highly ordered lyotropic liquid crystalline structures during simulated intestinal digestion at compromised bile conditions. Simulated gastric digestion influences intestinal digestion by slowing it down, resulting in less ordered structures. The digestion-triggered structure formation is pH- and bile salt-dependent and can be modulated by adding vitamin E to the oil. This tailoring of structures during digestion offers a new pathway to steer digestion kinetics and nutrient bioavailability.

Automated summary

Functional food emulsions enriched in health-promoting nutrients, such as buriti oil, have been studied for their effects on cardiometabolic health. This study investigates the colloid transformations of whey-stabilized buriti oil-in-water emulsions during simulated digestion. It is found that the oil phase transforms into highly ordered structures during simulated intestinal digestion under compromised bile conditions, and the digestion process can be modulated by adding vitamin E to the oil.